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Big Dysfunctional Intelligence Family
Entrance to Autobot City The vast atrium of Autobot City's entranceway stands before you. When Metroplex is not in residence, this area doubles as a military spaceport. Large towers relay information from around the globe and keeps the spaceport in contact with Earth's solar system outposts and the rest of the known universe.Security cameras and gun emplacements surrounding the entrance make sure that only those who are welcome enter. Scorch marks and small holes in the wall are reminders of the last battle here for Autobot City. When Metroplex is not present, a gate allows easy passage to and from the battle station's facilities. The Space Bridge to Cybertron is constantly monitored by solemn-faced personnel. To the north is the landing pad for flights to and from Earth. "Not quite yet, my dear." Whirl struts up to Shiftlock, arms still crossed, gaze still cold and unfeeling (like always.) He circles around her like some kind of predatory bird. "Shiftlock, have you killed anyone before? Answer honestly." "Yes," Shiftlock says, looking up at Whirl, trying to follow him as he moves around her. "You see this scar on my doorwing?" she asks, thumbing to the partial Decepticon insignia smear-burned into her armor. There's a series of carved tally marks over it. "One for every kill." Whirl scratches the spot on his face where his chin would be if he had one and nods. "I see, very impressive. Very.." He leans in, his face a mere inches away from hers, glaring into her very robo-soul with his glowing red optic. "..Exciting." He straightens up and walks out a few yards before turning back to stare at her. "Show me," he says flatly. "Pretend I am a Decepticon. Show me what you would do." "Pff, I don't have time for this," Shiftlock snorts, turning as if to simply ignore Whirl and walk away from him. Whirl cocks his head to the side. "Hmmm? What's the matter, Shiftlock? Afraid you'll hurt me?" He laughs and waves his pinchy hand at her as she turns away. "How do you expect to learn new techniques when you won’t even show me yours? Don't you want to be an Autobot?" Shiftlock looks over her shoulder at Whirl and smirks. "I dunno, you got anything worth learning? I mean, I could always study with Grimlock or Elita-One. Maybe even Sky Lynx. I mean, what could you possibly be able to do that those three can't do, or do better?" "For one thing," says Swerve, coming outside just in time to hear what Shiftlock's saying, "teach techniques that don't involve being a dinosaur or time control. It's great if you can get it, but... you know? I asked Grimlock to teach me his fighting style before." "Yeah, you can go to Grimlock.." Whirl says cooly, shrugging a shoulder and trying to look disinterested. "..if you're just into punching stuff, And Elita? Yeah, she's alright if you're into the whole stopping time thing. Sky Lynx?" He laughs. "That guy doesn't even have hands!" The irony is lost on Whirl. "Ah! Yes!" Whirl 'points' at Swerve who just convieniently happened to be at the same place and same time as him. "That guy gets it, whoever he is. Look, you can punch and stab and all that good stuff but that's not hard to learn at all. Hell, most of it is instinct. If you really want to succeed, you have to be totally fearless, you need to psyche out your opponent, you need to be.. a little bit crazy." To make his point, Whirl whips out an impressive knife and jams it deep into his midsection, piercing through the armour and shredding it apart as he drags it hard across his gut. He slowly walks back up to Shiftlock, brandishing the knife in her face as a steady stream of energon flows out of him. "You need to SHOW NO FEAR! You need to show them there's NOTHING YOU WONT DO! You need to get in their heads, Shiftlock! You need to get in their heads!" Combat: Whirl strikes himself with his Stabbings (Punch) attack! "Swerve," Swerve says distractedly, pulling a rolling trash bin out of the base. That must be what he's doing, taking out the trash. For Swerve it doesn't mean beating up Autobots. "He's right, you know." Blurr says. Wait, when did he get here? Probably just now. He's so fast he might as well have teleported or something. As much as he dislikes Whirl, he agrees with him this once. "You could go to Grimlock or Elita One, but you've got to find your own fighting style, you know? And if you're going to be working with us--with Intelligence, that is...I'll admit, Whirl would be a good one to take advice from." Shiftlock is suddenly alive with action. The facade of taunting Whirl is completely over as her hand disappears into her forearm, turning into an energy grapple; she ignores Whirl's words and his injury and attempt to phase her by waving a bloody knife in her face. Instead, she immediately attempts to hogtime him. That's exactly what she'd do if he were a Decepticon - distract him and then attack. Combat: Shiftlock strikes Whirl with her Grab attack! Repugnus says, "Nuts! The satellite got away from me. Hold on..." Repugnus says, "Dammit! Too late. It fired its payload." Sky Lynx says, "Are you at least collecting data?" Repugnus says, "Enh, yeah." Blurr says, "Maybe you can catch it." Repugnus says, "Too early to say what it's going to look like." Whirl gives Blurr a look. That's pretty much the only way to describe it. Simply, a look. He's a bit surprised to hear the speedster saw anthing positive about him and even though he's sure Blurr is being sarcastic, he gives him a nod of approval. "Yeah, listen to Blurr but just this once. You could learn a lot fro-" The Wrecker suddenly finds himself looking at the business end of an energy grapple. He has just enough time to let out a quiet 'clever girl' before finding himself on the ground, tied up like some kind of masochistic pervert. Or any number of things that get tied up, whatever. "...I knew there was a reason I liked you." Superion says, "WHAT HAPPENING." "And that's what I'd do if you were a Decepticon," Shiftlock says, "Get you mad, get you distracted, and turn on you." She holds the grapple in one end and quickly unholsters her gun, pressing it to the side of Whirl's head. "Bang." Swerve would've been impressed but he's distracted by Blurr suddenly showing up. "Oh, hey! Wow, Blurr! I saw you the other day but I guess you didn't see me? I've been meaning to talk to you." The little minibot had been heading out of Autobot City to spend a little R&R time alone, after all those shenanigans with underground energon rivers and conveyor belts, he's really wanting to down time to be alone. Peace and quiet is all he needs, he's convinced of that, and he often found the gates to Autobot City to be a good place for that. But when he arrives, it looks like a little.. situation has arisen. "Aw, shucks.." he mutters quietly, when he sees Blurr. He peers at the others, curiously but says no more. Blurr chuckles at Whirl's situation. "Well would you look at that. Seems you've underestimated her. Still..." he says, turning to Shiftlock. "You've got a lot to learn. If you were going to go for that strategy, you'd have to make it happen a lot faster than that. Of course...it would depends on who you were up against." He smirks. If it were him, or someone as fast as him, she'd have been screwed. Clearly. And then some little dude he doesn't know is talking to him. "Huh?" he turns around. Hmm, he doesn't recognize this guy. "Uh...I don't think I know you." he admits. "I mean, I'm sure I've seen you around, just--you know." he says, waving a hand dismissively. Whirl is so attracted to Shiftlock right now it's not even funny. He stares at Shiftlock for a long loong time before he finally breaks out into an almost maniacal laughter. "I guess I underestimated you, Shiftlock! You're actually a lot craftier than I initially gave you credit for." He squirms around in the grapple's binds for a bit before giving up with a huff. "Hnf! Ignore Blurr, I think you're ready for the real TEST OF SKILL! You and I, we're going to kill a Decepticon. Together! "It will be a date. A hot, murderous date," he adds. Tailgate glances over at Shiftlock and Whirl, tilting his helm to one side. "I thought it was a nice move," he adds quietly. Not that anyone would really hear him. buuut... anyway. "Don't mind Blurr. It's just his way to treat everyone like that," he tells Swerve. Shiftlock puts away the gun and unwraps Whirl. "I'm not a newcomer to this ... I just wanna up my game." "I'm up for killing some Decepticons. Like I said to the top brass ... I wanna kill them so hard, and so completely, history forgets they exist." After a long time Swerve enthuses, "It's me! Swerve! We were going to start a bar together! Well, not now, I guess. It would probably just get blown up. But after the war." He takes a sheet of bubble wrap out of the trash and starts popping the plastic bubbles. "I have a great idea for a name! Get this: 'Swerve and Blurr's Place!' Good, right? Homey." Repugnus says, "Well, this is interesting. Cybertron just fired another probe at the last remaining moon." "I like how you think," Whirl says, straightening himself out and giving his arms a wide stretch over his head after Shiftlock unties him. "Yeah.. yeah, I like where this is going. You've got the eye of the tiger, Shifter, I can smell it on you." He gets in close to her, really close. Like, creepy guy on a crowded bus close. "I want to see it, I want to watch you kill a Decepticon. I want to see firsthand how you take down an oponent and end his miserable life.." He perks up. "It will be great! I can bring some wine, maybe a few candles, make it real romantic, yeah?" "How *do* you drink, anyways?" Shiftlock asks. That probably ruins the mood a bit. Whirl snorts. "Hey, I can't give away ALL of my secrets. You'll just have to trust me on this." The truth is he drinks the same way Scrapper plays a trumpet/ "So she's a heartless monster, after all." Impactor has been watching at the gate for a little while now. He smirks, tossing a chunk of cigar on the ground. "All that carrying on about 'I do this for 'Bots like Sky Lynx and honor and blah blah blah' and here you are finally spoutin' off the damn truth: you want to kill some Decepticons deader than Dead Universe dead." He gives Shiftlock a nod. "If that's what you want, Whirl's the one to teach you. Hell, he's got a pile of bodies in his room right now. Uses the damn things as puppets." The minibot looks at Swerve, incredulous. "You were going to start a... bar with Blurr??" Not any insult to Swerve, but Swerve doesn't strike Tailgate as the type of person that Blurr would hang out with. He cringes at the information that Impactor offers, and his optics widen at Whirl. "Please tell me that isn't true! That's just.. plain awful!" He covers his faceplates. Then he glances over at Shiftlock inquistively. "I haven't seen you around before. Are you new to the base?" Tailgate asks. Shiftlock retracts the grapple and extends her hand, looking over at Impactor. "Killing for the greater good," she casually replies. "I know it's the right side to be on. I also know that there are those who can't bring themselves to do whatever it takes to win. I'll sell my spark if it means that stops someone else from havin' to do the same. So yeah - heartless monster." Tailgate gets her attention, and her demeanor alters a little. "Yeah, I'm new. Crystal Sentinel, Autobot hopeful. My name's Shiftlock. Nice to meet you." "Heheh, don't worry little guy," Whirl says to Tailgate. "They're not puppets, they're marionettes." He brushes some dirt off his frame with his pinchers, remembering that he stabbed himself earlier when he feels the slick wetness of his own energon on his nothand. "Oh, right. Hmm.." He leans over and wipes it off on Shiftlock's arm before turning his attention to Impactor. "Boss! What a coincidence seeing you here! You're looking as harpoony as usual." Blurr laughs at Impactor's comments. He knows it's probably true. It also makes him think of what he said to Contrail about Whirl. About descrating corpses. Again, likely to be true anyway. "Ha, that's true." He glances downward at Swerve then, looking confused. "Uh...a bar?" he doesn't ever remember talking to this guy. "We did? Hmm...Swerve, was it? Are you sure you've got the right mech? Maybe it was someone else who looked like me." Tailgate just gives Whirl a horrified look, as his gaze falls upon his self inflicted wound. He becomes concerned. "Are you alright?" he asks. His optics light up. It's nice to be noticed every once in a while, being so small made it easily for people to either ignore or forget him. "Autobot hopeful? Oh it's very nice to meet you as well!" Tailgate says, optics scrunching cheerfully. "I'm sure you'll get in. And I don't think you're a heartless monster! Everybody's got some good in them. except for Decepticons." "Well... hmm." Swerve thinks about this. "Maybe you got exposed to some electric plasma and lost your memory? You wouldn't know, right? Because you'd have lost your memory! I worry about that sometimes." Cybertronian Drilltank stares at Shiftlock for a long moment, and then spits oil off to the side. "Well at least ya ain't spouting a bunch of garbage no one buys like the other day, Empty. From where I'm standing, you're still a lot of talk. Feel free to prove me wrong." He gives Whirl a glare. Cuz why wouldn't he? And then Tailgate has to pipe up and be, well, himself. "Everybody's got some good in 'em? Sure. Doesn't mean they're not monsters, smallfry." Impactor transforms into his robot mode. Someone is going to die. Whirl looks at Tailgate and then at himself. "Ohh, you mean this?" He reaches inside the wound with his pinchers and yanks out an important-looking piece of tubing. "Don't worry about it. it's cool. Thanks for the concern though! Here, take this as a gift from me to you." He plops the energon-soaked gut tube in Tailgate's hands. "That'll be worth something someday, better keep it safe." The helicopter just gives a shrug in response to Impactor's glare. Dude is always eyeballing him like that. Combat: Whirl strikes himself with his Robointestines (Punch) attack! Shiftlock decides she likes Tailgate and is willing to take some shots for him. Sadly he hits on all the right weakpoints for the femme: Small, good-hearted, friendly, probably underpowered. PROTECTIVE MODE ENGAGED. "You haven't seen what I can do, so yeah, it'd be normal to say I'm all talk. Only actions prove anything," Shiftlock replies to Impactor. She turns her attentions back to Tailgate, murmuring in aside as she gestures to Whirl, "Don't worry about him. I think all the Wreckers are like that." Blurr nods at Impactor again. He's right on the money, in the speedster's opinion, anyway. "Heh, that's right." Deliberately ignoring Tailgate, he turns back to Swerve. "Er...well--I guess I did have a memory lapse once, but it was just a slight one, and it was recently. Um...when exactly do you remember meeting me?" Tailgate pauses. ".....Well. Monsters still have hearts. You can believe what you want, but you won't change my mind." He gives Impactor a genuinely innocent look. When Whirl hands him a piece of his inner tubing, he gasps. "Oh no! D-don't do that! That looks important!" he lingers after Whirl, trying to put back the piece given to him. "Well.. you can count on me! I believe you," Tailgate says sincerely, "after all, if I got in, why wouldn't you?" he chuckles softly to himself. He shrugs. "I guess..." When Blurr mentions his memory lapse, he suddenly looks very pained and upset. "That's what I need," he mutters quietly to himself. Shiftlock sighs at Whirl. "You have got to stop injuring yourself like that." "Nonono!" Whirl waves his null-ray module/hand thing at Tailgate."I don't need that, just keep it. Put it on your mantle so you'll think of me everytime you see it. Anyway, I have some helicopter things to do so I'm out of here." He then turns to Shiftlock wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her close against him for just a moment. "I'll be seeing you again, Shiiftlock. You can bet on it, heheh.." His arm finds itself back at his side and he departs, stalking back to Metroplex and leaving a spotty trail of energon in his wake. "......Okay." Tailgate says, looking more than disturbed. But he takes the piece of tubing very carefully and places it inside his subspace compartment. "Oh, man, a long... LONG time ago." says Swerve, coming back from dumping the trashcan into the compaction/reclamation dumpster. "It's okay, war's not over yet. There's still time, right?" As he passes Tailgate he asides reassuringly, "He'll be all right," indicating Whirl with his thumb. "He's got no known weaknesses." Shiftlock would blush if it were possible to blush. Oh wait, if Powerglide can have LED hearts thanks to someone's goofy storyboard, she can blush. So she does. Or maybe her character model got swapped with Tracks and her face was just red for a few frames. "... sure," she says to Whirl, before he takes off, bleeding all the way into Metroplex to do whatever it is 'helicopter stuff' is. She looks down. He got energon all over her torso. "Is that why he's so... self destructive?!" Tailgate asks incredulously. He notices Shiftlock is covered in energon and produces a rag from his subspace compartment and offers it to her. Wander. The Mirage, in all of his actually visible for once, glory makes sure to come wandering up towards the gates. He doesn't look as though he's been doing anything worth mentioning, but he also doesn't look as though he hasn't been doing anything. He's a tad bit dusty, but that's mostly it. He only slows his approach when he notices that there are others present and his optics thin out just a bit. He creeps, staying quiet and watching, observing, -- spying. Swerve shakes his head. "Nah, I think that's just his gimmick." He goes back inside with the empty trash can. Trash quest! Sky Lynx says, "Ultra Magnus, shall I retrieve Repugnus and deliver him to you for that debriefing?" Blurr nods. "Er....yeah, sure. I guess." he says, watching Swerve leave. Why the scrap does everyone like to do jobs meant for maintenance drones?! "Thanks," Shiftlock says to Tailgate, taking the offered rag and wiping Whirl's energon off her. Who KNOWS what sort of things that has in it. "Well, from what I can tell, Wreckers are kind of half insane, suicidal, and prone to serial killing," she explains to the smaller Autobot. Ultra Magnus says, "Affirmative, after your mission parameters are accomplished; hold him in the Decagon until I arrive." Repugnus says, "*Hold* me there? Oh, Magnus, I wouldn't miss this unpleasant confrontation for anything!" "You're welcome," he offers cheerfully. He watches as Swerve leaves, arching a brow ridge. It was his gimmick? Maybe Whirl thought fems found males who were masochistic to be attractive. Perhaps it was true. Shiftlock seemed to like Whirl well enough. "Do you.. like him?" he asks innocently, gesturing in the direction that Whirl had gone. "He's a little.. scary. And strange." He waves his arms back and forth, optics wide. "Not saying that I don't, but I mean, I'm not most..." Sky Lynx says, "Consider it done. Repugnus, activate the recovery beacon for the shuttle, I shall be there shortly." Repugnus says, "Eh, it's done. Superion! Mission's scrubbed, demerge and retreat." "He's interesting; I'm hoping he can teach me to improve my combat skills," Shiftlock confesses. "I guess... he's just nothing like what I'm used to." She looks at the rag. "... You want this back or should I dispose of it?" Mirage makes his presence known by adding his own snide commentary to what's being said. He's looking down with his non-existent nose held up in the air as he approaches the small gathering. His smug tone suggests that he's way too above these lesser bots to be worried about too much else. "I am not sure which are worse. Wreckers or Dinobots. They all share horrible habits." Tailgate looks down, rubbing his helm. "I could probably use some training too. I've only ever been a burden to everyone on all the field missions I've ever been on. You see, I've been trying to work my way up from 'least important' to 'noticed on occassion.'" He sighs. "I don't really like fighting, either. But I hate seeing anyone hurt, so if I have to I'll do anything to protect my friends." Tailgate looks over at Mirage. "I've never met any of the Dinobots, so I can't speak for them! But I'm sure they're not as horrible as you think they are!" "Well, if you ever need it? I've got your back," Shiftlock grins. She thumbs at Mirage, "This guy's pretty cool too, if you ask me." Repugnus says, "I can tell from the camera that Bruticus is trying to troll you, Supes. Don't fall for it!" "Cool?" Mirage seems to be somewhat confused by what he's assuming is a compliment of some sort, but there's a shrug that comes with the nod of acknowledgment of it. "I suppose I am much cooler than most." Mirage looks over to Tailgate. "Do yourself a favor and continue to keep away from the Dinobots. There really is no sense in breaking your mind on their kind." "Oh really?" His optics crinkle happily. "Oh that means a lot to me! Thanks!" he says, clasping his hands together. "And I'll always have yours! No matter what. Maybe we could train together sometime," Tailgate offers, "Well, eh, only if you want to.." he says a little offhandedly. "Ooh?" he responds to her statement about Mirage. "I haven't met him yet! Hello, it's very nice to meet you" he greets Mirage warmly. "You don't have to lean over to shake my hand if you don't want. I know that can be annoying sometimes." "Er, well, I suppose! No telling if I'll ever ending even meeting them anyway so.." "Oh c'mon Mirage. Grimlock's a great guy," Shiftlock grins. "First Autobot I ever met. Still owes me a bazooka," she laughs. Tailgate definitely has her attentions however. "If you wanna train with me, that's just fine! I mean, I'm not really considered any sort of expert, but I do know how to survive in rough environments." "And then you met me. And what did I do for you?" Mirage is not about to let Shiftlock live down what was probably one of his more stellar rescue operations. Though, he just kind of looks down at Tailgate in the midst of all this. "How about instead of shaking your hand, you go get me a drink, hm? A Petro Vodka Enertini will do just fine." Mirage is all about using lesser bots to handle his 'light work', as it were. "Oh really? Oh.. oh that would be wonderful! I would love to learn how to do that! I'm sure there's a lot you can teach me. I don't know very much," Tailgate says. "Of course, anything you need just let me know!" Tailgate says so willingly. Poor minibot, so few see how stepped on and abused he is, when he isn't being ignored. But he takes it all, because he doesn't want anyone to be upset because of him. He leaves for a for good several breems, returning with Mirage's drink. "Here you go!" Shiftlock stares at Mirage. "Really? Did you just order him around like a butler? REALLY?" she asks, hands on her hips. "Good show." Mirage quips, reaching for the drink and holding it up to look at it as if there's something wrong with it. It's what he does to every drink he gets though to be perfectly honest. "Oh no. Not like a butler. No, my butler would've been much more prompt than this." Blurr shakes his head at Tailgate's sickeningly optimistic willingness to be ordered around like a maintenance drone by someone like Mirage. He sighs. "Tailgate, don't let him talk to you like that, or else he'll get used to it and start treating you like his lackey." He shoots Mirage a sharp glare as he speaks. Tailgate's spark drops, and he taps a finger servo gently against his faceplates and he stares down at the floor. "I'm sorry," he says, shoulder servos sagging, his expression pained. He's too afraid to say anything else, for fear of setting one of them off, so he just stays silent, refusing to look at Blurr. "If I didn't owe you I'd slap the taste sensors out of your mouth," Shiftlock grumbles at Mirage. Tailgate's whipped puppy routine is just exacerbating her urge to violently protect small things. She kneels near him and places a hand gently on his shoulder. "Hey," she soothes, "You didn't do anything wrong. It's nice that you want to help, but Mirage is a big bot and he should be able to get his own drinks by now." She grins and slyly nudges Tailgate. "You don't wanna make him look like he's incapable of fueling himself." "...Thanks, but--" Tailgate says, trailing off. "I mean, that's true, but I wasn't just trying to be nice. I wanted..." To do something right, he thinks to himself. He feels like he can never succeed at doing anything correctly, he's so small, and with bigger bots like Mirage around, who needed anything done by a minibot like himself? But he just sighs and looks away. "Nevermind," he says, hanging his helm dolefully. "If he wants to help me, I don't see the harm in it." Mirage is just not too happy about everyone choosing Tailgate's side as opposed to his. All he wanted to do was get a drink and now everybody is getting all up in his grill about things. "But, fine, if I must-- I will take care of my own drinks from now on." "... Tailgate, you need a big fat shot of self-confidence," Shiftlock ascertains. "Yeah, I'm gonna have to work with you, Bot or not." Blurr smirks at Shiftlock's comment about Mirage. Hah, that was a good one. Maybe she isn't so bad after all. Perhaps she's learned a thing or two. "Yeah, wouldn't want anyone thinking you were some kind of invalid." he says, smirking.